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    Virginia RNG Project will Fuel AstraZeneca’s Maryland Biopharmaceutical Facilities

    Oct. 25, 2024
    The farm will produce more than 259,000 million British thermal units per year (MMBtu/y) of renewable gas through an anaerobic digester and divert more than 105,000 tons of food and beverage waste per year from landfill or incineration.
    ID 325460376 © Scharfsinn86 | Dreamstime.com
    671bb1f70408eb6c3822984b Dreamstime Rng

    TotalEnergies has started work on the Oakmulgee Dairy Farm renewable natural gas (RNG) project in Amelia Court House, Virginia, with its joint venture partner and BlackRock-supported Vanguard Renewables.

    The farm will produce more than 259,000 million British thermal units per year (MMBtu/y) of renewable gas through an anaerobic digester and divert more than 105,000 tons of food and beverage waste per year from landfill or incineration. The RNG produced at the farm will fuel AstraZeneca's Maryland biopharmaceutical production facilities.

    TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables are moving forward with 10 projects into construction with a total annual RNG capacity of 0.8 terawatt hours (TWh). The two companies also intend to invest in a potential pipeline of about 60 projects in the U.S.

    "This project in Virginia, and two others currently under construction in Wisconsin and Minnesota, are part of a promising potential pipeline of projects that will support TotalEnergies' ambition to be a leader in the fast-growing renewable gas market,” said Marc de Lataillade, Vice President, Biogas at TotalEnergies, in a statement.

    Show the Way: Field Guide to Decarbonization

    RNG carries the same energy density qualities of methane natural gas, but at a lower carbon profile. It can also help mitigate the environmental dangers of methane, which is released into air in landfills and decomposition of organic materials.

    Environmental scientists report that methane emissions are multiple times more damaging as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

    “Society will always produce waste, which naturally emits surface-level methane as it decomposes,” reads a report from the trade association Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition). “We can and should capture methane from our waste streams and prevent that methane from entering the atmosphere. RNG is one essential piece of the puzzle.”

    Economic drivers and world population growth could increase solid waste nearly 70% by 2050, according to the World Bank.

    Vanguard Renewables is held by investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners. GIP was acquired by private equity giant BlackRock in a deal which closed this fall.

    Companies working on RNG microgrids and data-center supply deals include Enchanted Rock.

     

     

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.